Coinify welcomes on board Casper Munk Christiansen as new Head of Compliance.

We had the pleasure of borrowing a minute of Coinify’s new Head of Compliance’ time for a quick chat regarding the transition from the banking industry to the crypto world.

What has brought you to where you are now?

– From an early age, I have been very interested in technology and IT. My father was responsible for me learning how to code, so this, in combination with my interest in finance, made me start as a bank trainee, and I quickly ended up in the IT department of the bank. When I finished my bank education, I decided to pursue professional volleyball. I spent five years playing all around the world before returning to banking with a job in the fraud management and risk mitigation department at Nordea. After five years, I assumed a position as manager in Handelsbanken where I could focus on the broader spectrum of financial crime prevention such as anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, fraud prevention, identity theft etc. During my time in the banking industry, I also started to develop a keen interest in crypto and blockchain, and I was fascinated by the options for decentralisation and transparency that these new technologies brought to the table.

How has the shift from banking to Coinify been?

– I find Coinify’s products very interesting and flexible. As a smaller company, we have the ability to adapt our products to fit our customers’ needs. The new financial services market we operate in is developing fast, and it’s challenging to predict what our products will look like in the future. Still, I am enjoying the unpredictability given that I come from the established banking world, where things move at a different pace. At Coinify, there isn’t far from thought to action, which also reflects in the customers’ expectations and my colleagues’ mindsets. Here, there is general excitement about being first movers and following the innovation of crypto products but also a wish to disrupt the traditional banking industry. This disruption will take some time due to the massive scale of some of the traditional banks but it’s going to be fun and in my experience from the world of sports, it’s always the underdog who gets the biggest cheer from the crowd.

What do you hope to achieve in your new role as Head of Compliance at Coinify?

– I hope that we can move a bit closer to the established financial services industry and start cooperating with the key players like central banks, the EU etc. I want to make virtual currencies more accessible for everyone while protecting the financial system from being used for financial crime. I have worked with fraud management for many years, and regulation and compliance are imperative to me.

Compliant services should not be more difficult to use than non-compliant ones. Coinify has always been an advocate for regulation and compliance, and it’s a part of the DNA and business model. However, I believe that I can help streamline the processes even further to make it even easier to be a Coinify customer or employee.

Do you think that integrating crypto products with more traditional financial products will create challenges in the compliance area?

– Yes, I think so because there is an ideological clash between the decentralised vision of cryptocurrencies and the centralised monitoring setup, which is an integral part of any banks’ operations. As an issuer of financial products, we need to solve these challenges in the compliance area, and I am excited to see how we can combine these two opposites in the future. 

I think it will become normal for banks to offer some virtual asset products, but as they are established mammoths, it will take some time to implement, and it also depends on how fast regulation will fall into place.

Where do you see virtual currencies in the future?

– I think virtual currencies will have an even more significant impact on society, but the biggest central players will have to regulate and expand this new infrastructure accordingly. However, the main success factor is trust. We see compliance as a key element in building that trust in both the technology and the use case, and we are highly motivated to keep optimising our compliance work.

If you want to learn more about life at Coinify or apply for a position – then head over to our open job positions page